Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert's Landing projects. In 1983, the Uni-
versity of California's Margaret Race conducted the first scientific critique
of wetland mitigation banking and restoration. She wasn't impressed.
Eventually, local activists began arguing for restoration in its own
right—and for the good of the ecosystem—rather than just for mitigation.
Projects such as Ora Loma, La Riviere, and Outer Bair Island marshes
were the first products of this different perspective. Carl's Marsh, breached
in 1994, set a record for the rapidity with which it became a home to plants
and wildlife. And efforts to revive the Napa salt ponds, bought in 1994
with a settlement from a Shell oil spill in the bay, set a record for size. At
10,000 acres, this project shifted the bay's restoration frontier to a land-
scape scale.
While biologists and engineers experimented with plants, tides, and
backhoes, government agencies overseeing the no-net-loss policy began
discussing ways to improve their haphazard permitting process for mitiga-
tion projects. And resource managers charged with recovering the endan-
gered Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse and California Clapper Rail, as well as
other wetland advocates, began to call for some kind of regional approach
or plan. They also began fighting about the ecological pros and cons of
converting seasonal wetlands with existing habitat values into tidal
marshes with different habitat values.
Eventually, a collaborative push from the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency and the regional water quality board, among other groups, got an
Volunteers helping with restoration planting. (Jude Stalker)
